Thermal and physico-mechanical evaluation of some magmatic rocks at Homrit Waggat Area, Eastern Desert, Egypt: petrography and geochemistry

Abstract

Egypt is characterized by a wide variety of granitic rocks, making it one of the most essential ten countries producing ornamental stones worldwide. The main objective of this article is to study the effect of the chemical and mineralogical variations of the granitic rocks on their thermal expansion behaviors and physico-mechanical properties for use as dimension stones. The assessment of these rocks was performed using two main parameters: the first dealt with the petrographic investigation and chemical analysis for mineralogical and geochemical characterization. The second dealt with some essential physical and mechanical properties (e.g., water absorption, bulk density, and apparent porosity, and compressive strength), and thermal behavior in terms of linear thermal expansion coefficient. Based on the petrographic description, the samples were classified into five types: syenogranite, alkali-feldspar granite, albitized granite, granodiorite, and tonalite. The mineralogical characterization exhibited variable proportions of quartz and feldspars (plagioclase and alkali-feldspar), in addition to accessory minerals such as titanite, zircon, rutile, and iron oxide-based minerals. The thermal investigation showed insignificant changes in the thermal coefficient values and the thermal strain up to 100 °C as it did not exceed 0.049%, which indicates that they can be installed in places of high-temperature conditions. The physico-mechanical properties revealed that the water absorption ranged from 0.14 to 0.52%, the bulk density ranged from 2590.42 to 2748.23 kg/m3, and the compressive strength ranged from 314.17 to 628.75 kg/cm2. These results indicate that the studied granites could be acceptable for interior (indoor) and light-duty exterior purposes such as building cladding.

Effect of mineralogical variations on physico-mechanical and thermal properties of granitic rocks

“…The values of water absorption fall within the standard specification limits (< 0.40%) 51 . The current results were found parallel to the findings obtained by (Alzahrani et al 2022 7 and Rashwan et al 2023 32 ) on different types of granites that ranged from 0.14% to 0.52% for water absorption and from 0.36% to 1.36% for apparent porosity. On the contrary, other studies such as (Siegesmund et al 2018 22 , Török and Török 2015 64 and Freire-Lista et al 2022 65 ) investigated several types of igneous rocks and recorded high ranges of water absorption and apparent porosity values that ranged from 0.78% to 3.53% and from 0.3% to 6.66%; respectively.…”

“…The values of bulk density of the present study were looked similar to the findings obtained by (Alzahrani el al. 2022) 7 in the range of 2582 to 2644 kg/m 3 , (Török and Török 2015) 64 in the range of (2.58–2.68 g/cm 3 ), (Rashwan et al 2023) 32 in the range of 2590 to 2748 kg/m 3 , (Dionísio et al 2021) 66 in the range of 2.48–2.63 g/cm 3 and (Freire-Lista et al 2022) 65 2461–2649 kg/m 3 .…”

“…Mineral constituents, grain size, texture, and degree of alteration of the rocks, are the main factors affecting the engineering properties and durability performance or the rate of degradability of stones 26 – 32 . Hemmati et al (2020) 29 studied the effect of mineralogy and texture of different crystalline igneous rocks on their strength properties and found a relationship between the compressive and tensile strength of the studied igneous rocks and their quartz/feldspar size ratio.…”

Physico-mechanical properties and shielding efficiency in relation to mineralogical and geochemical compositions of Um Had granitoid, Central Eastern Desert, Egypt

“…Worldwide, Egypt occupies the seventh place in the production of dimension stones (Mashaly et al, 2016), with a production volume of about 5.25 Million tons with 4% global sharing (Ericsson, 2019;Rashwan et al, 2023a). These rocks are widely used as decorative stones worldwide for construction of paving, flooring, cladding, and statues due to their great variety and high resistance and strength (Fort et al, 2013;Alzahrani et al, 2022;Rashwan et al, 2023a).…”

“…Worldwide, Egypt occupies the seventh place in the production of dimension stones (Mashaly et al, 2016), with a production volume of about 5.25 Million tons with 4% global sharing (Ericsson, 2019;Rashwan et al, 2023a). These rocks are widely used as decorative stones worldwide for construction of paving, flooring, cladding, and statues due to their great variety and high resistance and strength (Fort et al, 2013;Alzahrani et al, 2022;Rashwan et al, 2023a). Selected Igneous (granitoid of different types, basalt, gabbro, and ultramafic), metamorphic (marble and quartzite), and sedimentary (limestone) rocks represent the dominant natural industrial materials used as decorative stones in construction and building sectors (Gomes et al, 2020;Eroğlu and Çalik, 2023).…”